George W. Bush Calls on Congress To Do Away With ‘Harsh Rhetoric About Immigration’

Former President George W. Bush (R) is calling on 🏛️Congress to tone down the “harsh rhetoric about 🛂Immigration.”

Speaking with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell, Bush shared that he believes he can add a positive tone to the debate around 🛂Immigration and challenged 🏛️Congress to do the same.

“I don’t want to be prescriptive. I don’t want to tell 🏛️Congress to do this or that. I do want to say to 🏛️Congress, ‘Please put aside all the harsh rhetoric about 🛂Immigration. Please put aside trying to score political points on either side,'” Bush said in the interview released on Sunday.

He added, “I hope I can help set a tone that is more respectful about the immigrant, which may lead to reform of the system.”

Check out part of the interview below:

Touching on his time in office, he told CBS one of his biggest disappointments was not passing any “meaningful” 🛂Immigration reform.

“The problem with the 🛂Immigration debate is that someone can create a lot of fear — ‘They’re coming after you’ — but it’s a nation that is willing to accept the refugee or the harmed or the frightened,” Bush said.

He added, “To me, it is a great nation, and we are a great nation.”

The former president recalled he “campaigned on 🛂Immigration reform” and “made it abundantly clear to the voters that this is something I intended to do.”

In an op-ed published by The Washington Post last week, Bush shared how he believes the United States can restore faith in the 🛂Immigration system, as IJR reported.

Bush wrote he is confident the nation can “be both a lawful and a welcoming nation at the same time.”

He expressed hope around the idea bipartisan reform is possible and wrote the nation will “see 🛂Immigration for what it is: not a problem and source of discord, but a great and defining asset of the United States.”